Kaylea Cross and Pamela Clare, in front of the helicopter they each flew.

What happens when two bestselling romantic suspense authors get together? Authors Kaylea Cross and Pamela Clare recently returned from an adventure in Ucluelet, British Columbia, that involved braving big waves in a refitted U.S. Navy RHIB (rigid-hulled inflatable boat), watching orcas, hiking, plotting, flying in a helicopter and, yes, flying the helicopter. We are happy to report that they both survived.

Kaylea: I’m so glad you came up to visit me. We had a great time, didn’t we?

Pamela: It was the best time I’ve had in ages. The most exciting parts were … let’s see … pretty much everything. Going whale watching in a refitted U.S. Navy RHIB and seeing orcas for the first time. Being exfoliated by high-speed raindrops — ouch! Flying in a helicopter from Vancouver to Ucluelet. Hiking in the temperate rain forest there. Seeing shipwrecks. Plotting stories with you. Flying home again.

The public should know that when it comes to spotting whale “blows” and dorsal fins, Kaylea is the master. It’s almost like a superpower. She could spot them when even our tour guide couldn’t. Half the time I thought she must be making things up and then — pop! — a whale.

Pamela: It gave me a great deal of respect for Navy SEALs. Any time they go out on rough water, they get beat up. We got beat up. The water was very choppy, and every time that boat flew up and came down again, it felt like we were landing on concrete. I told my kids it felt like getting spanked — with a boat. Plus, the rain hits your skin at a very high speed and feels like sharp little rocks. That’s a detail I absolutely have to work into a book someday.

Kaylea: The captain was a lot of fun. We got to talk with him at lunch and found out he was former Canadian military. He was very interested in our books and talked about his military career with us.

Pamela: We really connected with him. When we got back on the boat after lunch, he put on Highway to the Danger Zone and started cutting sharp S-turns in the water. I’m certain he was doing that just for us.

Kaylea: He totally was! Tell us about Close to Heaven, your new release. This is a straight contemporary, a Christmas story.

Pamela: I love Christmas — a lot. It’s my favorite holiday. There’s something about the coziness of being indoors by the fire with a cup of hot cocoa and twinkling lights on all the houses that I cherish.

Kaylea: You’re preaching to the choir here. We do up Christmas BIG-time at our house. But I interrupted. Sorry. Go on.

Pamela:Close to Heaven is the fifth book in my Colorado High Country series. It’s contemporary romance, not romantic suspense like the I-Team series. It tells the story of Joe Moffat, reclusive owner of Knockers, the only brewpub in Scarlet Springs, and Rain Minear, who has worked for Joe since she was 17 and alone in the world with a newborn baby.

It’s a sweet but seriously sexy story with a happy ending. I wrote it for people like me who love Christmas and for fans of the series.

Here’s the blurb from the back of the book:

She has nothing…

Rain Minear has fantasized about finding herself in Joe Moffat’s arms for years. It’s just her luck that the night it finally happens, he’s carrying her into the emergency room. It’s Joe who steps up to help her when a tragedy brings her life crashing down. He gives her a place to stay, helps her get back on her feet, and even tries to save her Christmas, though he’s never cared for the holiday. But he’s far too ethical to sleep with a member of his staff, holding her at arms length despite the long-simmering attraction between them.

He has everything…

Haunted by ghosts of the past, Joe Moffat moved to Scarlet Springs to repay a debt. He’s struggled for years to keep his hands off Rain. She’s the general manager of his brewpub, and he is not that kind of boss. But, oh, she turns him on. More than that, she has the biggest heart of any woman he’s ever known. He’d do anything to see her smile again, even put up a Christmas tree and listen to carols, things he’s never really done.

The most important Christmas of their lives…

When a Rocky Mountain blizzard leaves them snowbound and alone together for days, they can no longer ignore their feelings for one another. As their passion turns to something deeper, it becomes clear to them both that this will be a Christmas that changes their lives forever.

Kaylea: I’ve read the story and I love the cozy Christmas feel to it. You’ve also got chapters that include historical flashbacks, which you know I love, since I’m a history nut.

Pamela: That was a lot of fun. I get to give my readers a look back at Scarlet Springs during its days as a rough and ready mining town. It wasn’t as friendly a place then as it is today. Things happened then that still affect people in Scarlet in our time. The flashbacks were necessary to give a visceral reality to those events.

Pamela: How about both? I left one character in misery in Scarlet Springs. Conrad needs to come from the Himalaya where his climbing partners were killed in a catastrophe on Mt. Everest. He’s had a hard time coping.

For some reason, I’m also very interested in working a search-and-rescue helicopter pilot into the series.

Kaylea: Gee, I wonder why that came to you?

Pamela: Yeah, I wonder. To be honest, I was a little nervous when we climbed into that bird, but it was a mind-blowing experience. The views of Vancouver Island are some of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen.

Readers should know that Kaylea and I survived a whole two or three minutes with my hands on the helicopter’s controls. Kaylea flew for a few minutes on the way home. We’re such a couple of badasses.

Kaylea: *puffs chest out and beams* What about the I-Team? You said “both.” I heard that. Also, I want more of Marc. Just saying.

Pamela: I still need to give Joaquin Ramirez, the sexy photographer, his story. People don’t realize how gutsy photojournalists have to be. They’re more likely to get injured on the job than reporters, in part because they have to get close to situations that reporters do not. Let’s not forget that Joaquin fast-roped into a firefight in Breaking Point. His heroine is going to be a veteran, a woman who served a couple of tours in Iraq.

I also plan to pick up with Javier Corbray (Striking Distance) and Derek Tower’s private security business for an I-Team spinoff. We’d see the I-Team characters now and again. Holly Bradshaw and Nick Andris (Seduction Game) have left the CIA and work for the company now. Derek Tower doesn’t have anyone in his life, so the series will start with his story.

Kaylea: That ought to make I-Team fans ecstatic. Do you have any other projects in the works?

Pamela: My first indie audiobook, Dead by Midnight: An I-Team Christmas, will be out in time for the holiday season. Kaleo Griffith, who performed all of the other books in the series, is narrating the story. It’s a fan favorite, and I’m thrilled to be able to offer it in audiobook format. It’s a very tense and exciting story — the I-Team grand finale. Best of all, it includes cameos of your Hostage Rescue Team guys from the HRT series. So your fans will get to hear from them, too.

Kaylea: I’m still over the moon that you included my guys in that kickass, heart-pounding story. And Kaleo has an absolutely dreamy voice. So what’s our next adventure?

Pamela: A trip to the Arctic? Sky-diving over volcanoes? No. Neither of those. There are no Starbucks in those places. Whatever we do, it should involve more whales.

Kaylea: No Starbucks means a definite no-go. Let’s do Maui or Kauai in the winter, during whale season. We need you to see some humpbacks this time. They’re my fave.

About Strike Fast by Kaylea Cross:

A military widow reluctant to risk her heart again.

After losing her soldier husband in combat, DEA agent Tess Dubrovksi swore never to fall for another man in uniform. The last thing she anticipates is for a sexy FAST agent single father and his young daughter to steal their way into her heart. Now Tess can’t stay detached, even though he brings a ton of emotional baggage she’s not sure she’s ready for. But when an unthinkable tragedy strikes and his daughter’s life is at stake, Tess is already in too deep to walk away, and will lay everything on the line to help.

A single father who protects what’s his.

A divorce and custody battle left DEA FAST agent Reid Prentiss cynical about love. Then a sexy helo pilot walks into his life and changes everything. But his newfound happiness with Tess is too good to last. His team’s latest target is looking for an opportunity for revenge, and finds it in Reid’s daughter. When a vicious cartel lieutenant decides to make a statement by kidnapping her, Reid’s whole world implodes. Now it’s a race against time to save her, and hope is fading with each passing hour.

Even with his teammates and Tess at his back, it will take everything Reid has to endure this hellish nightmare and find his daughter…before it’s too late.